Sunday, September 19, 2010

During Chol HaMoed Sukkot (September 26-28), the Begin Center will be offering special tours in honor of 150 years since the founding of Mishkenot Sha'ananim, the first Jewish neighborhood outside the walls of the Old City.

Tours will begin at the Begin Center and along the way, participants will meet Sir Moses Montefiore, who founded the neighborhood, and Avraham Kirshenbaum, a member of the Underground, who single-handedly defended the Yemin Moshe neighborhood and was killed by a British sniper. The tour will conclude with a conversation about life in Yemin Moshe with Pnina Kirshenbaum, Avraham's sister and life-time resident of Yemin Moshe.

These tours are in HEBREW, cost 35NIS and reservations are required: 02-565-2011.

On September 28th, a special Hoshana Raba evening program will take place. The evening will be four lectures by our most popular Parashat HaShavua lecturers followed by a musical performance. The order of events is as follows:

Thursday, September 16, 2010

On Monday afternoon this week, members of the Hurwitz family, family friends and the staff of the Begin Center, went to Har HaMenuchot Cemetery to mark the second anniversary of Harry Hurwitz's passing. Yuval Bar-Or recited the psalms and sang El Maleh Rahamim and Kaddish was recited by Dr. Hillel Hurwitz, Harry and Freda Hurwitz's son. Dr. Hurwitz also said a few words in memory of his father and thanked everyone for attending.

Monday, September 13, 2010

"When I first entered the Knesset there were people around like Menachem Begin and [Yitzhak] Ben-Aharon. Suddenly [in my last term], I was surrounded by all sorts of types and didn't know what I was doing with them. Like my mother used to say: 'These are not friends for you.' Sitting there was the person who was the most terrible education minister ever, Limor Livnat; there had never been a catastrophe like that. And suddenly for the first time in my life, I was becoming bitter. I was a short-tempered and unpleasant person, even more than usual."

b)

There is something of the nightmarish, of death and separation in the poems. In "Tip for the Loser," the politician-poet writes: "Who will eulogize Yossi Sarid" [in Hebrew, "eulogize" - yaspid - rhymes with "Sarid"]. However, there is also irony and humor in the book, as in the poem "Interest in Life." There, Sarid writes somewhat humorously about death, with whom he has been acquainted for many years: "He's the only one who hasn't criticized me for smoking." In the poem "In the Cellar," he writes: "My hand is cold / and I want to wrap myself in you / to escape the cellar that is like an attic / for a person with TB / Menachem Begin is waiting there for me / with a glazed look on his face."

c)

On the subject of Menachem Begin, Sarid says: "My home is my castle. I sometimes go out for a day's work, but usually not. Sometimes this staying at home reminds me - of course, the difference is huge - of how Begin stayed at home. He did this because he was a broken man, and I am doing it because things are coming together. My need for the outside environment is minimal these days. Nevertheless, I am not completely exempt from thinking it is similar. Sometimes it seems to me that if I open the door, maybe I will find Begin waiting for me."

About Me

American born, my wife and I moved to Israel in 1970. We have lived at Shiloh together with our family since 1981. I was in the Betar youth movement in the US and UK. I have worked as a political aide to Members of Knesset and a Minister during 1981-1994, lectured at the Academy for National Studies 1977-1994, was director of Israel's Media Watch 1995-2000 and currently, I work at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. I was a guest media columnist on media affairs for The Jerusalem Post, op-ed contributor to various journals and for six years had a weekly media show on Arutz 7 radio. I serve as an unofficial spokesperson for the Jewish Communities in Judea & Samaria.